Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Hans Frank Diaries: 3) "the Jews had been liquidated..."

Author: Jonathan Harrison

On June 18, 1943, Frank noted at a meeting:

The
same is true for the resettlement, which of all things had been carried out after the
Jews had been liquidated, partly so that the Poles, starting with the child to the oldest woman,
were witnesses of this evacuation of the Jews.

The full German paragraph from which this has been translated reads as follows:

That
the illegal propaganda has a much easier job than the German one is
best shown by the arguments put forward in the
various presentations of the previous speakers. First of all, this is the case for the acquisition of the workers. There
exists the grievance that the relatives of the workers transferred to the
Reich are left behind in difficult circumstances, inasmuch as they do not have the necessary connection to the workers in the Reich, do not
receive sufficient money allocations, etc. The measures taken in the context of the acquisition of the workers: that cinemas were surrounded and that people were taken out for labour deployment, that even some churches had been surrounded. It is obvious that all such things undermine German propaganda. It is impossible to eliminate these practical occurrences by purely psychological propaganda. This
is precisely the case with the battle for production, which is
carried out not in the Polish but in the German interest. The
same is true for the resettlement, which of all things had been carried out after the
Jews had been liquidated, partly so that the Poles, starting with the child to the oldest woman,
were witnesses of this evacuation of the Jews.

2 comments:

When Frank talks about 'the resettlement' , is he referring to resettlement of Germans, or Poles ? For if he is talking about Jewish resettlement ( which obviously didn't happen anyway) then it doesn't make sense if it occurs "after liquidation" !

I believe Frank is referring to this episode discussed on 25/1/43, whereby Poles who were being resettled were worried that they would be "liquidated like the Jews"

Warsaw, 25 January 1943

Present: Dr. Hans FRANK and others

[Page 16]

State Secretary Krueger: When we settled about the first 4,000 in Kreis Zamosc shortly before Christmas I had an opportunity to speak to these people.

(State Secretary Krueger) It is understandable that in resettling this area we did not make friends of the Poles.

[Page 17]

(State Secretary Krueger) In colonizing this territory with racial Germans, we are forced to chase out the Poles.

(State Secretary Krueger) We are removing those who constitute a burden in this new colonization territory. Actually, they are the asocial and inferior elements. They are being deported, first brought to a concentration camp, and then sent as labor to the Reich. From a Polish propaganda standpoint this entire first action has had an unfavorable effect. For the Poles say: After the Jews have been destroyed then they will employ the same methods to get the Poles out of this territory and liquidate them just like the Jews.

[Page 19]

(State Secretary Krueger) As I have mentioned a great deal of unrest in Polish territory has resulted because of this resettlement.

Dr. Frank: We will discuss each individual case of resettlement in the future exactly in the same manner as in the case of Zamosc, so that you will, Mr. State Secretary, appear before me and render a report.